It was a little over a week ago that we first started hearing talk of a possible A.J. Burnett trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The talks have moved slowly since then, but might be reaching a conclusion.
Jon Heyman tweets that there is a lot of optimism for a Burnett deal to the Pirates, and says that the Yankees will pay $20 M.
Yesterday I reported that the Pirates were willing to go to $12-14 M, and that they’d rather give up money than prospects. I also predicted that the deal would get done with the Pirates paying $13 M for Burnett and giving up two prospects that they won’t miss. It sounds like the two sides are in agreement on the money aspect, based on Heyman’s update. We could be nearing a conclusion to all of this.
UPDATE 10:25 AM: Buster Olney reports that an unknown team brought a proposal to the Yankees yesterday. I guess this saga wouldn’t be complete without a mystery team.
UPDATE 10:48 AM: Jim Bowden reports that the two sides are close, and cites a source as saying the deal could be done in the next 24-hours.
UPDATE 5:07 PM: Two updates from Joel Sherman (Twitter links), and the news is somewhat new. Sherman says that the Yankees have made a counter offer to the Pirates. He says they believe progress has been made, and that they remain optimistic that a deal can be reached before pitchers and catchers report on Sunday. Sherman hears that the Yankees offered a sliding scale, with the Pirates giving up lesser prospects the closer they got to $15 M.
